My top three pieces of Classical music

Hello there!

I know that I’ve been apologizing for late posts a lot lately, (my actual goal is to have each post live by 6:00 AM Monday mornings.) and I’m afraid I’m doing it again, sorry, just kept putting it off this week, although I haven't been idle, I’ve been planning for next week's post! So here it is, just in time for the weekend!

I listen to a LOT of “Classical” music, not really a specific period, IE, the Romantic era, just generally classical sounding, instrumental music, sometimes even by modern composers! I find that it helps me to focus when I REALLY need to, so I thought this week I could recap my top three favorite classical pieces of music.

I did set three rules for this list. 1. Each piece needed to actually have some age behind it; being at least old enough that the composer behind it wasn't still alive. 2. Due to overplaying, and constantly hogging all the good ratings on lists such as this, I am excluding all music by Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. 3. Each individual “piece” had to be ONE piece! So I couldn’t say The Four Seasons, for instance, I would have to pick just one season. I should note here that I am rating these based on my personal opinions, NOT public perceptions of the pieces, and although I would love to put these in some sort of order, I just can’t rate them that easily, it’s like apples, oranges, and bananas.

First up we have Gymnopédie No. 1, by Erik Satie.

I’m willing to bet you probably don’t know this piece by name, but I’m also willing to bet you have heard it before. It is definitely the slowest piece that I am listing today, and it has a deep, almost brooding feeling to it. Due to the slow tempo of this piece, it has a good length to it, not too long, but not so short that you are looking for more. I find that It’s great for focus, although it’s probably not the first piece you will want to turn on, I find that it’ll help to keep and sharpen focus assuming you already have your brain in motion.

Next up we have Reaper’s song: July, from The Seasons by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

“Wait… The seasons? You mean Vivaldi right?” Nope, Vivaldi's composition is called The Four Seasons and is organized by season, whereas Tchaikovsky’s composition is called The Seasons, and is organized by month. Now, I love all of The Seasons, but I had to pick one month in particular, so after sorting through all twelve months I decided on July. This piece is bouncy, with a joy to it which you may not expect from classical music, it is quite quick, both in tempo, and due to being quite short, but if you listen to it with the rest of the Seasons you’ll barely notice that. Focus wise, it may distract you slightly, but it is sure to put a smile on your face.

And last, but far from least, we have The Swan, from The Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Have you heard this piece before? Almost definitely. Did you know it by name? Quite possibly, but I just couldn’t leave it out. I have a special affinity for this piece, I truly believe that it is the most beautiful piece of classical music ever composed. There is a gentle melancholy in the lilting violin, and you can’t argue that it is far too short, as much as I also love the Aquarium, I couldn’t even consider including that over The Swan. In terms of focus, however, I can’t manage to focus on my work AT ALL when this piece, as I am drawn in entirely, and just want to sit back and listen.

So there you go, three pieces of classical music that you should DEFINITELY listen to, assuming you don’t know them already, can you pick a favorite out of them?

I’m gonna apologize here for next week’s post being late, but I promise that it should be worth it!

Thanks for the read!